They say eyes are the window to the soul, but probably only if you paint them straight. So learning how to paint eyes help make your faces look more believable and add character. With today’s Watch This, we have Kuro Cleanbrush Minis who shows off some nice tips.
Sometimes it can be easier to watch someone show off a technique through a video than through pictures. So check out the video below and then I’ve got a cheat sheet underneath.
How to Paint Eyes
If you weren’t able to watch the video, I’ve summarized the main points below. The biggest takeaway: use the brush tip and clean your brush as the paint dries.
General Tips
- Don’t use pure white for the eye, instead, choose an off-white
- Keep the paints thin so it doesn’t add texture to the eyes (use something like airbrush medium)
- Painting the eyes or the skin first is a matter of choice and how easy it would be to do one way or the other
- Don’t use a tiny brush (he used a Raphael 0, I like WarColours) so it doesn’t dry too quickly
Paint the main eye
- Fill eye socket with dark brown or dark blue to allow the eye to pop
- Use the tip to paint Leather White
- Flip and move the model around to get the right angle
Paint the Iris
- Paint a small line in black to get a sense of where they should go
- Add more black paint to fill in the full iris
- Flip the miniature to paint the other eye
- By painting them slightly to one side of center, it adds some interest to the face
- ‘Fake’ the iris by adding a small dot to the center (I’m thinking it works best on large-eyed models)
- Just need to sell the effect on, doesn’t need to be perfect circles
- Add a small dot of pure white in the corner to make it shine
Wrap Up
Painting eyes can be difficult to get right. But with a few tricks that I hoped you learned from the video, I hope it will become easier for you. Make sure you give Kuro Cleanbrush Minis a follow for more video tutorials.
